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Ok – I went to my first hot yoga class tonight. I’ve taken plenty of yoga classes before, but I wanted to try something new and there is a place not to far from me that offers these classes. Fist of all, I had more sweat pouring out of my body in this yoga class than I do when I go to spin. They keep the room at 85 degrees, so it’s, well, hot once you start moving and holding eagle pose for 2 minutes. I was looking around going, please tell me that I’m not the only one this gross. Luckily, I was not. We all had beads of sweat on our arms, legs and chests. That made me feel better. So that was totally off topic, but I wanted to share 🙂

Last night my friend Niki and I went to Casbah in Shadyside for dinner. Casbah isn’t a new place, it’s been open for several years now and is one of those places I kept meaning to go to for dinner but just never did. It has a Mediterranean themed menu and they change the menu daily (with some things that are always on there of course). I enjoyed this meal very much and was surprised at how busy this place was on a Tuesday night. Shadyside is always busy of course, but there was a constant flow of people.

The way they have the menu setup is that there are small plates and appetizers and then larger plates. I know a lot of people who have gone here just ordered a bunch of small plates and apps. Niki and I decided we’d go with real dinners. We both started with salads. I got this pretty salad, the Salad Vignarola, with asparagus, radishes, Manchengo cheese and a celery seed dressing. This was a tasty salad.

Niki went with the arugula salad, I took a bite and boy was this great. I think it was the pancetta vinaigrette that made it so good.

I went back and forth on what to order for dinner. I decided on the short rib ravioli and it was exactly what it sounds like. It was the braised short rib meat in ravioli served with a short rib sauce. It was very good and I ate about half of the serving while I was there, I wanted desert 😉 I actually ate the leftovers for lunch today and it still tasted good!

Niki went with the house specialty, the pork chop with braised kale and pea and prosciutto risotto. The chop was cooked perfectly (even if it was gigantic) and I loved the kale and risotto. Niki was kind and let me try a bite of her food.

Even though I was full, Niki talked me into desert. We ordered a champagne Macaroon to share. I loved the strawberry sorbet, it just tasted summery to me. I liked the cookie and the cream as well. It was surprisingly pretty big, we only managed to eat about half of it between the two of us but I’m glad we tried it.

Overall, I really liked Casbah for dinner. It was on the pricier side especially if you get a glass of wine or two, but I would go back here for a nice night out. Probably not the place I’d go to every week for a casual dinner.